


On the Road Again

by mylifeisloki



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky's kind of a shit, Gen, M/M, Sam's also a shit, Steve's just happy to have friends, Ups and Downs, lots of talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 16:32:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6914764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylifeisloki/pseuds/mylifeisloki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The questions posed: What did Steve, Bucky, and Sam talk about on that eighteen hour drive from Romania to Germany? How many times did Bucky and Sam almost kill each other? When will Steve realize that he's a terrible liar? These questions and more are about to be answered, hour by hour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Road Again

**Author's Note:**

> Well, thank you for getting this far. I felt like I had to write this out and just focus on something kind of lighthearted for a little while? Anyway, I'm hoping everyone's in character and I hope you enjoy it!

**Bucharest, Romania [Hour 00:00]**

“Oh, hell no.”

Steve sighed from where he was leaning back against the blue Volkswagon he’d managed to hotwire and get all gassed up, unfolding his arms and giving Sam a pleading look. “Come on. It’s low profile. No one’s ever gonna spot us in this thing.”

Sam moved towards the car and peered into the backseat, where Bucky was already sitting (and brooding). “We can’t even _fit_ in this thing,” he pointed out.

“Sure we can,” Steve answered brightly, pulling the passenger door open and gesturing for Sam to get in. “You can even sit up front with me.”

“Why does _he_ get to sit up front?” Bucky asked from the backseat, where he’d kind of sprawled out as much as he could, one leg up on the seat, his knee digging into the back of the seat Sam landed in.

Sam scoffed. “Because this much sexiness shouldn’t be hidden in the backseat.”

Steve rolled his eyes as he got behind the wheel again and off they went. Sam handed out the granola bars he’d bought while Steve and Bucky procured their ride and they passed around one bottle of water because, as Sam put it, they didn’t need to worry about ‘draining the lizard’ while they were on the run.

“You’re disgusting,” Bucky had quipped from the backseat.

“Fuck you, I’m a delight,” Sam had answered.

Steve just told himself it was going to be a very, very long drive to Germany.

**Pitești, Romania [Hour 01:30]**

The car started shaking at some point and Steve nearly had a panic attack thinking the car was going to crap out on them because of the combined weight of three pretty sizable men, but it turned out to be Bucky bouncing his right leg.

“You wanna stop that?” Steve asked, glancing back through the rearview mirror. “You’re shaking the whole goddamn car.”

“My leg’s asleep,” he countered, only bouncing his leg a little more insistently. “Maybe if I got to sit in front…”

“Let it go, Memento,” Sam quipped. “You’re not getting up here. I earned this seat.”

Steve was about to tell Sam off, but Bucky just huffed and sat back. The shaking stopped.

**Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania [Hour 02:30]**

“Steve, the highway is that way,” Sam pointed out as their fearless leader took an exit onto a side road that looked just about as shady as one might expect for being in the middle of nowhere in Romania.

“I know that.” But he kept going and eventually pulled up right behind another car. As they were still coming to a halt, someone got out of the driver’s seat and Sam just looked between Steve and Sharon, then back to Steve.

“We really don’t have time for a booty call.”

Steve scowled back at him and got out, leaving the boys alone. “Can you move your seat up?” Bucky asked. His knee was still probably digging into Sam’s back, but he was making no effort to move it… because he felt like it was more fun to make Sam angry.

Still staring straight ahead, Sam answered. “No.”

Bucky pressed his lips together and begrudgingly moved to the other side of the backseat, not that he’d have more room behind Steve. He just wanted to move a little bit so nothing fell asleep again.

But then…Well, Bucky got curious and asked Sam exactly who the woman Steve was talking to was. They’d fought, of course, but all he remembered was putting her through a table and moving on to Natasha.

“That’s your boy’s new squeeze,” Sam explained, still watching them unabashedly. “Sharon Carter.”

Bucky was quiet for a few moments. “Carter,” he repeated, almost to himself. “Like---“

“Like Peggy Carter,” Sam continued. “Her niece.”

Silence, then what turned into shocked silence as they watched Steve and Sharon kiss for a couple of seconds. Bucky smiled when Sam did, but the second Steve turned his attention to loading their gear into the back of the car, he sat back with a huff. “What the fuck.”

Sam gave Steve a knowing smile when he got back in and Steve told him to cut it out before he made him walk to Germany. Bucky decided that it was in his best interest not to comment even though he wanted to make about a thousand jokes, most having to do with familial relations. It would probably always be too soon for that kind of teasing.

**Somewhere in Romania [Hour 03:25]**

“If you don’t fucking stop humming, I’m going to kill you.”

Bucky’s voice cut through the relative silence in the car and Steve raised his eyebrows, smirking lightly to himself as Sam leaned his head back—and began actually singing instead of humming. Steve could hear the gears in Bucky’s arm slowly curling his hand into a fist at his side.

**Somewhere in Romania [Hour 04:00]**

They still had at least two hours in Romania and Steve was about 500% sure that Sam and Bucky were going to come to blows and wind up fighting each other instead of the people trying to arrest them.

“Stop it.”

Pop.

“ _Stop it_.”

Pop.

“I swear on my life, if you don’t _stop_ —“

Pop.

Sam twisted around in his seat and made to grab Bucky, who just grinned menacingly and opened his arms (as much as he could) as if to say ‘bring it on’. “Come on, man. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Steve sighed. “Boys, if you don’t play nice—“

“I’m going to kill him,” Sam mumbled, twisting back around and cracking the window for some air.

“You couldn’t kill me if you tried.”

Yeah. Two more hours, and that was just to get to Hungary. Steve figured they needed to stop and eat something or _some people_ were going to get _really_ cranky.

**Somewhere in Romania [Hour 04:15]**

Pop.

“Steve, pull over. Pull the fuck over, I need to beat Eternal Sunshine’s ass.”

**Somewhere in Romania [Hour 05:00]**

Bucky had fallen asleep almost half an hour ago and Steve caught himself throwing glances back at him via the rearview mirror. Sam was doing his best not to mention it, but hey. He was curious.

“Probably not the best time to ask, but you wanna tell me exactly how close you and Jason Bourne back there used to be?”

Steve’s brow furrowed a little bit and he glanced at Sam before answering. “Close as you’d expect, I guess,” he shrugged. “We were best friends. We were _always_ best friends. Bucky saved my ass when I was like… six years old and we were inseparable from then on. After my mom died, we literally barely spent a night away from each other until he started, uh—You know. Spending nights out.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “Huh.”

Steve side-eyed him until he kept going because an explanation was definitely needed here.

“I kind of got the feeling you two were… testing the social boundaries of the day, if you know what I mean.”

Wait, what? Steve frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sam gave him a look. “You know. I was pretty sure you two were fucking.”

The car swerved into the next lane and Sam swore under his breath as Steve righted them, narrowly missing a car that honked and flipped them off as they drove by. “ _What_?” He hissed, frantically glancing into the backseat in the hopes that Bucky hadn’t heard that and wouldn’t wake up because of it.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, man. I was just wondering. No one does this for someone who’s just a friend. All those Brokeback glances and shit… Figured it was because you two used to play hide the zucchini, as Tony would say.”

Steve visibly swallowed and shook his head. “No, we never—No,” he rasped. “It wasn’t like that.”

**Somewhere in Romania [Hour 06:00]**

A groggy Winter Soldier came to and shifted in the backseat, swearing under his breath in what sounded like... Bulgarian? Regardless, he sat up properly and licked his lips and he looked around and tried to gauge where they were. “We haven't gotten to Hungary yet?”

Sam sighed. “Does it look like we have? I mean, that sign--” He pointed to a random road sign they were passing. “Clearly says Caransebeş. _Obviously_ , we're still in Romania.”

“Your pronunciation is fucking atrocious.” Bucky grumbled something that sounded an awful lot like 'Do I look like I know every fucking city in Romania?' and sat back with a huff. Steve, who was still thinking about what Sam had asked him, remained notably quiet with his eyes on the stretch of highway ahead of them. That is, until Bucky went ahead and asked them what they'd gotten up to while he was sleeping and Sam just _had_ to answer.

“The usual. Talked about kisses, romance. Maybe practiced on each other a little bit. You'll never know.”

Steve could see Bucky roll his eyes and he smiled a little bit. It was great to see little bits of the man he'd once known beneath all the trauma he could see in Bucky's eyes. Honestly, he remembered more than Steve had even dared to hope for and that was probably what _really_ kept him going. There was hope here. Hope for--

“Yeah, right,” Bucky quipped back, folding his arms over his chest. “Unless you're saying you kiss so badly that it wouldn't even distract Steve from driving. _That_ I can believe.”

Sam scowled and glanced back. “You sure as hell won't be finding out,” he countered. “You keep those Soviet assassin lips away from me, got it?”

Bucky held his hands up in mock surrender. “You don't have to tell me twice.”

**Border between Romania and Hungary [Hour 6:30]**

“Finally,” Steve breathed as they entered Hungary. Over six hours of driving and he really, really needed to stretch his legs. He was sure Bucky and Sam felt the same, but they really did need to get to the rendezvous point and meet Clint and the others... It would have to wait.

“Speaking of Hungary,” Sam piped up. “Anyone else getting the munchies without the fun part?”

Bucky frowned. “What?”

Sam sighed. “No one appreciates my humor. I'm hungry. Like the goddamn country.”

Steve smiled, and Bucky just groaned. “How do you _stand_ him?”

“He grows on you,” Steve assured him. “Give it time. Should we find a drive-through place or something?”

Sam laughed to himself, head turned towards the window. “Hello, I'd like three fugitive meals to go, please. Oh, and don't worry about the metal arm. He's just special.”

Bucky 'accidentally' kicked the back of Sam's seat hard enough to make him jolt forwards, then grinned at his triumph and turned his attention to Steve. “Just get us into a city and we can get street food.”

“It's about two hours to Budapest,” he said. “Can we wait?”

Two groans echoed around him and Steve huffed a little to himself. “At least you can agree on something,” he mumbled, taking the next viable exit to find them some food.

**Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary [Hour 07:00]**

Once they'd pulled into a small gas station so Steve could fill the car up, Sam got out and left Bucky to negotiate how he was going to squeeze himself out of the backseat. It took some time, but he eventually kind of... poured himself out of the car and stood up, only to 'accidentally' shove Sam to the side and march off in search of food while he pulled his gloves back on.

“You think he's gonna come back with like-- fish heads or something? What do they eat in Hungary?”

Steve shrugged where he was leaning forward over the roof of the car. “No idea. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it,” he said easily. “Not like we have much of a choice.”

Bucky came back with two hands full of food. He handed both to Sam, giving him a pretty disarming smile- a smile that Steve knew, and a smile that worried him very slightly. “The bag is for me, the box is for you two,” he explained, ducking down to _crawl_ back into the backseat without complaint. If that wasn't suspicious, Steve didn't know what was. He gave Sam a look and got back into the driver's seat so they could hand out the food and enjoy, although 'enjoy' was a strong word considering the lack of space.

Once the bag had been handed back to Bucky, Sam opened the box and cautiously handed Steve one of the portions of--- Sausage? “Um, Buck? What is this?”

“Kolbász,” he answered. “And kifli on the side.”

Steve and Sam exchanged a look before mutually deciding that questionable sausage and what looked like bread with some kind of egg wash was better than no food at all. They bit into it and grunted their approval just as the _scent_ hit them. “Woah,” Same said quickly, recoiling from the food before he realized it wasn't coming from theirs and turned his head towards the backseat. “What the fuck is that? That's just--”

In the backseat, Bucky sat with a little cardboard dish in one hand and a large stuffed pepper in the other. He was already chewing, a smug look on his face even as he met Sam's eyes.

“It's a töltött paprika,” he informed Sam, who was now glaring fiercely at the assassin currently making his life a little more difficult than it already was- which was really saying something at this point. “And right here?” Bucky gestured to the food still in the box. “This is töltött káposzta. Bet Steve doesn't mind the smell.”

Steve snorted. “Me? Mind the smell of stuffed cabbage? It smells like home.”

Sam wrinkled his nose in disgust. “It's gonna smell in here for hours.”

Bucky could be seen smiling to himself in the backseat, even more so when Sam turned around to face forwards again. “Oh, _sorry_ about that. I know me and Steve don't mind.”

**Somewhere in Hungary [Hour 08:00]**

They still hadn't escaped the smell of stuffed cabbage despite quite some time having passed and the windows being opened. Steve didn't put it past Bucky to still have a bite or two leftover, just to keep it going and annoy Sam a little more. Regardless, it was Sam's turn to take a rest. He curled up as much as he could in the passenger seat and let his head fall back as he passed out for a good forty-five minutes or so. Steve loved both of them, but he was glad for the slight break in the almost constant bickering. If he wasn't sure that it was Sam and Bucky's way of getting to know one another, he might have been worried.

“Don't you want to get any rest?”

Bucky's voice again cut through everything else and Steve glanced back at him, their eyes meeting briefly by way of the mirror. “I'm okay,” he assured him with a very small smile. “I'm not much of a sleeper these days.”

There was a grunt in response and Steve thought they were done, but Bucky actually had more to say. “Do you still talk in your sleep?” He wondered aloud. It was such a small thing to remember, but Bucky found that sometimes the small things helped him remember bigger things. He'd also found that a lot of the little things revolved around Steve.

Steve smiled a little. “I don't know,” he said honestly. “No one around to tell me if I do or not.”

Bucky kept his face blank. He wasn't accusing Steve of anything, but he figured this was a good way to figure out... “Maybe Sharon would know.”

Again, Steve nearly swerved, but righted himself at the last minute and cleared his throat. “I promise you, Sharon wouldn't know.”

“No?”

“No. I know what Sam must have told you, but we're really not all that close. I mean, Peggy and I aren't even friends, really. More like acquaintances and she really did help us a lot. Going on the run to help us, too. It's-- complicated, but it's not like we're _together_...”

“Sharon,” Bucky said quietly.

Steve stopped and frowned. “What?”

“Her name is Sharon. You said Peggy.”

The implications of that mistake were pretty clear, but Steve didn't know how to answer and they fell into a heavy silence that had Bucky studying the cars as they passed and Steve frowning to himself.

**Somewhere in Hungary [Hour 09:00]**

A bump in the road followed by Steve's swearing out loud was actually what woke Sam up. He lifted his head and frowned, sitting up to rub the sleep from his eyes and peer out into the darkness around them. “Where are we?”

“Fuck knows,” Steve grunted. “Still not Budapest, I'll tell you that much.”

The silence was noticeable at that point and Sam glanced between Steve and Bucky for a few seconds before shifting to put his back to the door. “Trouble in paradise? Let me guess. A cold, metal arm isn't the most sensual thing in the world?”

Steve narrowed his eyes and punched Sam in the shoulder without even turning his eyes from the road.

“Wouldn't you like to know,” Bucky muttered from the backseat.

Sam rubbed his arm and frowned at the two of them. There was definitely something wrong here, but getting into it right here in a tiny car on the Hungarian freeway probably wasn't the best idea. “It still smells like cabbage in here,” he said, shaking his head as he righted himself in his seat.

The chunk of the aforementioned stuffed cabbage hit the back of Sam's head within a few seconds and Steve was pretty sure he was going to have to stop one more person from laying a hand on Bucky before all of this was over.

**Budapest, Hungary [Hour 09:45]**

“Have you ever actually gotten the story of what happened in Budapest between Nat and Clint?”

Steve shook his head in amusement. “Nah, she's pretty quiet about it,” he said. “But I feel like it's probably a great story. Can't imagine how it could be crazy enough to compare to what we've been through since I've known them. Maybe she just likes to keep us guessing.”

And yet, they talked about it like it was this amazing cornerstone of their relationship. Steve figured he'd get it out of Natasha at some point... Although with the way things were going, he might not ever get that chance. She was on Tony's side, after all. It was hard to think of her as an enemy.

“Who's Clint?” Steve sometimes forgot that Bucky wasn't privy to all the people they'd be fighting with _or_ against. He'd met a bunch of them, but not Vision. Not Wanda. He hadn't met Clint either. It was a real shame things ended up this way, because Steve could actually imagine Bucky and Clint getting along in some strange way. And he was also pretty sure that Bucky would be hitting on Natasha in no time, just for fun.

“Hawkeye,” Steve explained. “The guy with the bow and arrow?”

Bucky nodded, clearly thinking back to that research he wouldn't admit to actually doing. “That's who you called for help? What help is he gonna be?”

“Have a little faith,” Sam prompted. “We can't all be super-powered individuals, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Bucky answered. “If nothing else, you're a pret-ty obvious reminder.”

“You know, I meant to ask. Have you ever found out what fucking yourself with your own---”

Steve gave him a side glare and Sam pouted a little, turning his head towards the window as he finished up under his breath. “Conveniently attached, metal dildo feels like, you freaky piece of sh--”

“Sam!”

“Hey, I can take it,” Bucky countered, stopping Steve's attempt to protect him. “He's just jealous.”

“Ha! Jealous of what, your highness? The hobo hair or the metal arm?”

“Both,” Bucky spat back at him. “Not _everyone_ can pull off this look.”

**Somewhere in Hungary [Hour 10:45]**

“Steve, you really need to get some rest.”

Steve didn't think so. Well, he did. But he didn't think he'd be able to rest anyway. He felt... like he couldn't let himself have anything of the sort until this was settled. And honestly, it might not be settled for a long time. And to think, he'd _just_ started to think that he had a handle on his nightmares.

“I'm fine,” he answered. “Really.”

But Sam wouldn't let up. “You've been going for a long time now with no rest. You're gonna burn out and then what? We can't do this without you.”

“Sam, I'm fine,” he repeated. “I don't think I could sleep anyway.”

Sam let out this big, heavy sigh that Steve found all too familiar. He was gearing up for some kind of lecture about how he was just a person, goddamnit, and he had limits like everyone else, but before Sam got to talking, Bucky did it for him.

“For fuck's sake, Steve. Let him drive for a while and take a load off.”

Steve clenched his jaw and patiently pulled onto the side of the road, slamming the car into park just hard enough to show that he wasn't pleased about all this. “Fine,” he mumbled, unfolding himself out of the driver's seat and watching as both Sam and Bucky got out the other side. They switched things around with Steve crawling into the backseat and Bucky taking the passenger seat as Sam got behind the wheel. It wasn't ideal, especially from where Steve was trying to arrange his legs in the back, but at least there would be no more complaining about him taking a rest.

They were back on the road by the time Sam spoke up about it. “So, what? I tell you to take a rest and I get lip. _He_ tells you to take a rest and you just do it? That's cold, man.”

Steve elbowed the back of Sam's seat and looked up just in time to find Bucky's looking down at him with a mix of gratitude and... amusement? He smiled a little in return. “Maybe he just knows how to boss me around,” Steve said. “He's got more practice.”

“I might not remember everything, but I definitely know that there's no bossing you around. If you don't want to do something, there's no fuckin' way you're gonna do it. And if you wanna do something, there's no talkin' you out of it.”

Steve smiled to himself, letting his eyes close and one arm drape over them in an attempt to get some actual rest. He wasn't going to get his hopes up, but he could try. “Got that right,” he laughed easily.

**Just outside Bratislava, Slovakia [Hour 11:30]**

It was funny, the conversations people could have at close to two in the morning. Steve had apparently drifted off (or passed out) at some point, and he woke up to one of those conversations. He woke up to a conversation he really, really hadn't wanted to hear.

“So, nothing? You don't remember ever finding out whether or not Captain America bottoms?”

Not something he needed to hear. Steve was pretty sure his heart started racing, but he remained completely still and kept the hand over his eyes just in case. He wanted to listen, but God knows why. He hadn't been lying to Sam before; he and Bucky had never slept together. It wasn't like Bucky was going to say anything different.

“What's it to you?” He asked. “Are you trying to get into Steve's pants or something?”

“Maybe I've already been there. You don't know.”

Bucky grunted and Steve nearly peeked out from behind his arm, but he didn't want to risk it.

“If you'd really been there, you wouldn't be asking me questions like that.”

“How do you know? Maybe I just wanna jog your memory and find out if you're moving in on my boy.”

“Your boy? I thought he had a squeeze already. You're a font of misinformation.”

“You saw the same kiss I did.”

“Just a kiss. Doesn't mean anything.”

“Aw, is that _jealousy_ I hear?”

Bucky must have glared because Sam laughed to himself and kept going. “I mean, her hair isn't nearly as _dramatic_ as yours is and not everyone's got that tortured, sexy look you're trying to rock, but she's alright. Put the two of them next to each other and they're like the perfect... blonde-haired, blue-eyed couple. It's almost sickening.”

There was silence after that. Steve frowned to himself, but he didn't dare lift his arm or give them any indication that he was actually awake. Unfortunately, that meant that the next time Sam spoke, Steve couldn't understand what exactly had brought about the change in his tone.

“Wait, are you actually jealous?”

Bucky shifted uncomfortably and Steve could hear Sam let out a breath through his nose. “Look, man. Don't be. Look what Steve's doing for you. Doesn't take a whiz to see the big picture here.”

He heard the shift of a metal arm and figured Sam had reached out to touch Bucky's shoulder, making the other man flinch away from him. “Just drive, would you?”

**Somewhere in the Czech Republic [Hour 12:30]**

Steve had 'woken up' half an hour ago and he still didn't know how to do this would letting on that he'd heard them earlier. “Sleeping Beauty,” Sam had said when he sat up already rubbing a hand over his face.

“Pull over. You're not driving anymore.”

“You know, you're a shitty backseat driver. You could at least let me pretend to have a say.”

Steve leaned forward and clapped his hand onto Sam's shoulder. “It's two thirty in the morning, and it's my turn to drive again. _And_ it's definitely your turn to be back here. Pull over.”

Sam did as he was told, but it wasn't without muttering to himself about Steve just wanting to be in control and something about watching a touching reunion from the backseat. Once Steve was settled again, they headed off towards Prague. Once they got there, it was just a hop, skip, and a jump into Germany, and another... hop or two until they reached the rendezvous point.

“So, I know it's two in the morning and all, but do we actually have a plan once we get there? What are we supposed to do? Steal a plane?”

Bucky glanced to Steve, eyebrows raised like he was surprised Sam had come up with something so smart. “That's not a bad idea. We need to find a way to get to Siberia...”

“We can't steal a plane,” Steve said, shaking his head. “We can't. We'll never make it off the runway.”

“Well, there's gotta be a way out of there. You and I both know that Stark's tracking Wanda's movements. Wherever she goes, they're gonna know about it.”

“Well,” Bucky mused. “They've gotta get there somehow, right? Not all of them can fly.”

Steve and Sam got it right away. “We have to take the Quinjet,” Steve breathed. “That's the only way. Once we're in stealth mode, they can't track us.”

Set at ease by the plan, all three men fell silent until Sam's knee pressed into the back of Bucky's seat and World War III started up again.

**Somewhere in the Czech Republic [Hour 13:30]**

At some point, despite the early hour, Steve found himself feeling pretty upbeat. Wait, maybe that wasn't the right word. Awake! He was awake, even though it was only half past three in the morning and he hadn't exactly gotten a lot of rest. The thing was that despite how much he wanted to talk to Bucky, he wasn't sure what to say. He had about a thousand questions to ask about what Bucky may or may not remember- their reunion after Bucky and those other men had been captured during the war, the way they would share a bed during the colder weather to keep him from getting sick, those quiet times at home that Steve treasured so much when Bucky wasn't going out with various women (and more often than not, dragging him along for a part of the ride). There were a lot of things he would have loved to talk about, but now wasn't the time. He wasn't sure there would ever _be_ a right time.

“You look like you're trying to solve a really difficult math problem,” Sam quipped from the backseat.

Steve snapped out of it right away and hazarded a glance towards Bucky like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar or something. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “There's a lot going on in my head.”

“Something Sam would know nothing about,” Bucky quipped, earning a glare from the backseat.

“You wanna talk about it, or should we keep pretending not to notice?”

Sam really was nice to offer. Steve supposed that was his whole... counselor training thing coming on through and he wondered whether or not he might have offered those services to Bucky if the situation had been a little (i.e., incredibly) different. There was no one Steve would trust more to help Bucky get his head on straight. But as for his own issues, he was far more apt to ignore them.

“That second one sounds best,” he decided.

“Awesome,” Sam remarked, leaning back. “Brooding man-pain it is.”

Steve glanced at Bucky again. “Come on, don't be like that. You know I don't talk.”

“You don't _want_ to talk,” Sam argued. “Is it because we're not alone?”

Bucky perked up like he was ready for the verbal confrontation of the century, but Steve just sighed. “No, of course not. I just don't want to talk about it.”

“You're sure? It's not because of—”

“You know, you can just pretend like I'm not here,” Bucky interrupted.

“Trust me,” Sam deadpanned. “I'm trying.”

More silence, and Steve was not only feeling pressured to speak up, but he really wanted to. He wanted to know if Bucky understood what they'd been to one another. It.. felt like he did, but it also could have been that Bucky knew Steve would protect him. All of this? It could be Steve seeing what he wanted to see. It could go away at any time. Bucky could _run_ \--

“Steve never talks,” Bucky mumbled. “He never admits to anything. Nothing to prove, definitely not jealous of all the attention I used to get. Not bothered by how many girls I went out with either.”

Steve swallowed. “Why would I be jealous of the girls?”

Bucky shrugged a little and his metal hand shifted audibly. “I don't know,” he said. “You tell me.”

**Somewhere in the Czech Republic [Hour 14:30]**

After the mess that was Bucky’s simple question about Steve’s alleged jealousy, things fell quiet for a while longer. Honestly, Bucky wasn’t quite sure there was even jealousy involved, but it felt that way. It felt like maybe Steve hadn’t expressed the interest in Bucky’s various girlfriends like he should have? Some things were still blurry, but the memories didn’t speak nearly as loudly as Steve’s refusal to answer.

The problem was that Bucky couldn’t remember a single time when he and Steve had stepped past best friends and gone into something _more_. He couldn’t remember any kisses or long nights spent rolling around in bed. The truth was that he remembered _women_ that way. He remembered soft breasts and curls and awkwardly trying to unhook bras. He remembered telling Steve about them, about how good this one had tasted when they kissed or how much this other one liked to press against him when they danced.

Wait, though. Maybe there was something.

“Did we sleep together? We did, right?”

Steve’s hands visibly tightened on the wheel and Sam perked up in the backseat because this kind of discussion was exactly what he wanted to hear. “I can hear Natasha’s head exploding from here,” he quipped. “Did you?”

Clearing his throat, Steve relaxed a little bit and kept his eyes on the road. “We _slept_ together, yeah,” he answered. “Slept. Nothing else. And it was usually only in the cold weather or when I was sick.”

“Usually?”

Steve shifted a little. “Sometimes we just—fell into the same bed and didn’t bother moving,” he mumbled. And sometimes Steve ‘accidentally’ fell asleep in Bucky’s bed knowing that his friend would just crawl in beside him. No one needed to know that.

Bucky studied him in silence while Sam spoke up again. “Sounds like a perfectly good cover up to me,” he said easily. “Look at this. Cap’s the most eligible bachelor of the goddamn century and the ladies are gonna lose out to Mr. Roboto over here.”

Steve glanced back at Sam and gave him a stern look. “Knock it off. Look, can we talk about _anything_ else? Hm? Anything.”

“You know, I’m getting a little tired of you upstaging me, Rogers,” Bucky quipped. “First in red, white, and blue tights and now again. Can’t you let anyone else have a little fun?” He shook his head. “Most eligible bachelor, my ass,” he grumbled. “I could look like the most eligible bachelor too.”

“Maybe with a bath, a shave, a haircut, and a new attitude,” Sam countered. “To start with.”

This was better. This was so much better than getting into the intricacies of the relationship they’d enjoyed back before the war. Steve wasn’t sure Bucky was ready to get into it and even if he was, it felt like admitting to a lot of the things he’d done back then would make Bucky start _thinking_ and that would mean Steve was taking advantage because they really hadn’t been as close as Sam was making it sound…

“At least I don’t have to wear a bird costume,” Bucky answered.

“It’s a _suit_ ,” Sam argued.

Yeah. Yeah, this was so much better than actually talking.

**Prague, Czech Republic [Hour 15:15]**

The sun was rising as they made their way into Prague. The sky turned beautiful colors like pink and purple, all mixed with a hue of gold as the sun shone through it all---

“That’s it.”

Bucky twisted around in his seat and reached out like he was going to jolt Sam from his sleep- the sleep that had induced nearly half an hour of on-and-off snoring that was obviously grating on Bucky’s last nerve. But he didn’t reach out. Oh, no. Instead, he folded himself over the seat and grabbed the container where he was keeping his last little piece of stuffed cabbage.

Steve glanced over with interest, but he didn’t make any move to stop whatever was about to happen. At this point, the cabbage was probably on its way to going bad and it smelled to high heaven the second Bucky opened the container, but he wasn’t going to stop this. It was just Bucky being… Bucky. He was acting out and that was fine because it really wasn’t malicious. It was just playful.

And so, Steve sat idly by while Bucky _delicately_ stuffed the last bit of stuffed cabbage into the pocket of Sam’s jeans, tucking it in with one surprising deft finger before facing forwards again and grinning to himself like he was a kid again. It was really nice to see from Steve’s point of view, to be perfectly honest.

“He’s going to get back at you,” Steve warned lightly. “You’ll never see it coming.”

Bucky scoffed. “I think I can handle him,” he said confidently.

Steve let out a laugh through his nose and shook his head. “You two? Cut from the same cloth.”

Close to six that morning, while they were making their way through a city in search of some food because two supersoldiers really couldn’t go that long without, Bucky demanded that they stop. Steve pulled over and Bucky immediately left the car, accidentally slamming the door when he closed it.

Sam jolted awake and Steve laughed when he sat up too fast and bumped his head on the roof of the car. Even while he rubbed his forehead, Steve kind of just snorted into his hand and tried hard to stop without much success.

“You’re such a dick,” Sam groaned. “Where’s 50 First Dates going?”

“That’s a good question.”

Together, they watched as Bucky jogged across the street and entered a small shop. It looked like some kind of bakery, but Steve’s Czech wasn’t exactly up to date and he couldn’t translate the name. Regardless, a smug looking Bucky came back out maybe ten minutes later with a large bag clutched in his hand and squeezed himself back into the passenger seat of the car.

He dug through the bag for a moment before handing each of them an _enormous_ , powdered sugar covered pastry. “Strudl,” he explained. “It’s good. Eat it.” With that, he bit into his own and actually let out a groan of some kind. Steve began to wonder if Bucky had developed a sweet tooth because back in the day, it wasn’t nearly this--- distracting--- to watch him eat pastry. Then again, they rarely had the money for pastry.

Giving in to Bucky’s suggestion, Steve and Sam enjoyed their respective strudl before they set off again with full(ish) stomachs and a renewed sense of purpose.

**Crossing into Germany, [Hour 16:00]**

“Alright, Red October,” Sam quipped. “Let’s switch things around again. I think my back is going numb.”

Bucky huffed a little bit. “I think I’m comfortable up here,” he countered. “But thanks.”

“It wasn’t a question,” Sam argued right back. “Switch with me, or suffer the consequences.”

“Consequences?” He scoffed. “What are you gonna do? Chirp at me?”

Steve was pretty sure he could _hear_ Sam’s jaw clenching.

“I’m gonna smack you in the back of the head and see if we can’t scramble a few more things.”

Bucky didn’t respond and _when_ he didn’t, Steve turned his head briefly to find Bucky frowning down at his hands, his brow furrowed. The tone had clearly changed in the car and it seemed like Sam noticed it too because he leaned up close despite the somewhat dramatic chance that he’d be taking a metal elbow to the face. “Sorry, man,” he said cautiously- and sincerely. Steve knew it was sincere, and he hoped Bucky knew the same. “I didn’t mean to go that far.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Bucky said through gritted teeth. “Why don’t we scramble a few things in _your_ head and see how _you_ like it?”

Sam was nothing if not apologetic. He’d gone too far and he knew that- besides, despite the teasing and the insults being thrown back and forth, he didn’t have anything personal against Bucky. He recognized that the guy was a victim- he just didn’t have quite as much faith in him as Steve did. Not yet. “Alright, I deserve that,” he answered. “Tell you what. If you let it go now, the next time we get a free minute, I’ll let you sucker punch me as hard as you want.”

Silence. Bucky straightened up a little bit and relaxed his hands. His lips curled into a faint smirk before he could stop it. “You wouldn’t make it.”

Wait, was he teasing? “Oh, you think I can’t take what you’ve got?” Sam challenged.

“No, I _know_ you can’t take what I’ve got.”

“Then put your money where your mouth is, Barnes. Next free minute. You and me.”

“Hey, you got it, man,” Bucky answered, holding his hands up in surrender. “With Steve as my witness, you asked for it.”

With a crisis averted, Sam actually reached forward and clapped his hand onto Bucky’s shoulder- not his metal shoulder, but the one on the left. “Damn right I did,” he said easily.

Steve waited for Sam to sit back before reaching out on his own and patting Bucky’s thigh just above the knee. It was more of a gesture of solidarity than anything else, but he also just wanted to check and make sure Bucky was alright. Despite all Steve had been through, he still couldn’t imagine facing the kind of trauma Bucky had. He couldn’t imagine what trying to recover must have felt like for the poor guy.

In return, Bucky hesitated before letting his hand gently rest over Steve’s and offering the other man a somewhat hesitant smile. He wanted to be sure of himself and the limits of their relationship, but he wasn’t. Maybe he hadn’t been entirely telling the truth earlier when he said he really only knew Steve because he’d read about him in a museum, but… the _real_ truth was that no matter how much he remembered over the year or so he’d been in hiding, it felt weird to call Steve anything else but a stranger even though he knew Steve was so, so much more.

“If we’re not careful, Wilson’s gonna start making kissing sounds and tell us to get a room.”

Now, that made Steve laugh. It made Steve’s whole face just light up with a wide smile and all of a sudden, Bucky knew that even if he couldn’t remember everything…. He loved Steve. That warm feeling in his chest, the way his stomach kind of tightened and a little shiver ran down his spine? That was love. But he smiled and chuckled along too, and it didn’t feel so scary to notice that his thigh was tingling a little once Steve pulled his hand away again.

**Somewhere in Germany, [Hour 16:30]**

“Pull over, Steve,” Bucky said calmly. “We can switch.”

**Somewhere in Germany, [Hour 17:00]**

“We should go over the plan again.”

Two simultaneous groans filled the car and Steve glared at his friends.

“We meet up with Clint, Wanda, and Scott,” Sam said for the six(teen)th time. “Assuming they’ve been tracking us, we just need to move fast enough to get the Quinjet and get the hell out of there.”

Bucky sighed. “They’re going to put up a fight.”

Steve hated it. He _hated_ that he had to fight against people he really cared about. Tony, Rhodey, Vision… Natasha! God, the last thing he wanted was to fight Natasha, but he didn’t really have a choice, did he? She’d picked that side. He still didn’t understand why, but the fact remained that she had.

“We’ll give ‘em hell,” he said quietly. “Or at least enough hell to get out of there.”

Then, as an afterthought, Steve was about to say again that the object wasn’t to kill anyone, or even severely injure them. The _goal_ was to get to the Quinjet and get the hell out of there so they could stop Zemo. Period. He’d try to reason with Tony, but that wasn’t going to work, so—

“You think they can actually handle me and Tweety Bird at the same time?”

Steve raised his eyebrows and glanced over to Bucky, who was giving him a confident smirk. “We can take them. Even with that weird ass _cat_ guy—By the way, did no one else catch the irony of a cat fighting with a bird…?” He pointed back with his thumb and made a face. “Just saying.”

“Fucking _thank_ you,” Sam said from the backseat. “Cat guy’s got some issues.”

Bucky glanced back. “Why is that? Because he dresses up like the wrong _kind_ of animal?”

Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “You know, just when I was starting to trust you. Bam. Right in my back when I let my guard down.”

**Leipzig/Halle Airport, Leipzig, Germany 9:00**

“So, you think this is gonna get ugly?” Sam wondered as they pulled into the airport and headed for the rendezvous spot.

Steve snorted. “It’s already ugly, Sam. Only gonna get worse if Tony doesn’t listen.”

“And we both know he won't, because he's Tony.”

Bucky was notably quiet, but Steve figured he was just gearing up for what was about to happen. They were all putting their lives on the line, but it was Bucky in particular who was taking a risk here, and that was just because he had no history with those people. If you added in the fact that T’Challa was trying to avenge his father’s death…

“We’ll be alright,” Steve blurted out, reaching out to the side to squeeze Bucky’s shoulder.

Once everyone had arrived and introductions were made, they dispersed over the small area they’d claimed and suited up. That is, everyone changed into their uniforms and Steve found himself wanting to give Bucky some reassurances that they weren’t going to give up. It wasn’t like they wouldn’t be arrested as well, but they needed to clear Bucky’s name. It was imperative that they make sure the real villain was brought to justice because like that asshole said before—there was no way Bucky was getting legal representation if they were caught again.

Bucky was just getting his jacket on when Steve headed over. “You know we’re not gonna give this up, right?” He found himself saying. “I don’t care how nasty this gets, we’re gonna figure this out and stop him.”

Honestly, Bucky looked like he was at a loss for words. He smiled a little and Steve could see his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed before nodding along in agreement or encouragement. He wasn’t sure which. Satisfied that he’d said his piece, Steve awkwardly turned to make sure the others were ready and—

“Wait.”

He turned back and tried not to seem quite as hopeful as he felt. “Yeah?”

Bucky stepped forward and frowned at the space between their feet for a moment. “Thank you,” he got out, lifting his head again. “For this.”

Steve didn’t know what to say, but that didn't seem to matter. A sheepish and unsure looking Bucky was stepping closer before he knew it and wrapping his arms around Steve's neck in a gentle hug. It was so gentle, in fact, that Steve almost felt bad for the intensity with which he returned it, his arms tight around Bucky's middle, his face buried in his friend's shoulder. Underneath the sweat and the lingering scent of stuffed cabbage, Bucky still smelled very much like Bucky ought to smell. Steve took comfort in that, and he held tight until Sam called out for them ("Did you put stuffed cabbage in my fucking pants, Barnes?!) and they had to let go. Pulling back, he offered Bucky a knowing smile and they silently agreed to do this together, to go out there together, to find the truth together.

This was it. This was their last stand against Tony and those who’d chosen to stand beside him because either they were being taken into custody (only to later escape again, surely), or they were getting out of there. The fight wouldn’t go on.

Steve did know one thing, though. When this was all over, he was going to tell Bucky _everything_.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! <3


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